PLATO´S ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE Jonathan Duque Cisneros www.neosanthropos.wordpress.com Introduction In The Republic book, Plato talks about several prisoners who are tied in a cave. They only can see the back of the cave. Some persons are above a wall that is behind the prisoners and have many figures in their hands. A fire produces a reflection of the figures in the back of the cave. They think that the shadows are the unique reality. A prisoner escaped and saw that the shadows are only a reflection of the true figures. He returned to the cave to tell the true to his mates but they think that he is crazy so they killed only prisoner that saw the true. Phileas del Montesexto thinks that this allegory is a metaphor of the spiritual route. He thinks that the prisoners are all people who live without transcendental ideals and the prisoners think that the unique reality is which we can perceive with our senses. Our senses are limited; so, the thing that we call reality is only a partial perception of that. If we do ascetic practices that many spiritual masters gave us, we can escape of the illusion that is created by our senses and our beliefs. On another hand, Helen Buss Mitchell says the allegory teach that the prisoners are all people that live according to wishes and instinct, they are trusting in the opinion of the majority but they don't analyze if it is the true. The people who escape to the cave only trust in the reason. The ‘reason’ is the way to know the true of the soul.
The prisoners are all people who never search the answer of the transcendental questions and only life to work, eat and sleep. The philosophy is the rational ways that affords us escape of the cave and see the true. Is a fact that we have a limited perception of reality because we can´t see all the game of colors and the variety of sounds. Also, our perception of reality is limited by our beliefs. Essay In my opinion, the reason is a way to escape of the cave but what 'reason' is? The Greeks called 'reason' to the mind. Plato was Greek, so he called 'reason' to the mind. The mind doesn't do only logical process, human mind is much complex. The mind has a concrete level, an abstract level and an intuitional level to Perennial Philosophy; so, if we want to escape of the cave, we should develop these levels of our mind and focus our mind on achieving a noble ideal. We should practice meditation to develop our intuition and analyzed and synthesized the philosophy of all continents to develop the concrete mind and the abstract mind. Also, we must practice the things that we have learned. The born of humanity with a higher consciousness state is part of many philosophical traditions around the world. Unfortunately, the society compel us to dedicate all our time to live a life without purpose because the most of people don't have time to check their beliefs; so, they think that the life is to work, eat and sleep but never think in existential questions and they don't have time to the internal development. The prisoners who think the shadow is the real world are like the modern society that is lost in the consumerism and the search of passing pleasure.
Like the prisoner who escaped to the cave, many philosophers, Scientifics, artists and other people were called crazies or charlatans by their contemporaries; so, if we meet to any person who say thing that are ridiculous for us, we should think in the possibility that this person know something that we don't know. Conclusion We spend our life in mundane activities. Many of these activities are important to live but are not the essential to be happy. The most of people thing that to be happy they should spent their time in activities like going to a party or drinking much alcohol but this kind of activities only can give us a passing pleasure. This kind of pleasure is like the shadows on the cave, is not a real happiness. We will be happy when find our mission in our life and when we live to do things according to a noble ideal. In my opinion, this is the essence of the Plato's allegory of the cave. Bibliography DEL MONTESEXTO, Phileas; Los Pilares de la PansofĂa. GAARDER, Jostein; Sophia’s World. MITCHELL, Helen Buss; Roots of Wisdom PLATO; Republic.